As usual – the comments that a post gets when it is featured highly on Digg were mixed (both the comments on Digg and the post itself) but one of the recurring questions I was asked as a result of the post was:

Why would you want more comments on your blog?

There are many reasons why I think comments on a blog are good. Here’s three that I responded to the question with last week:

Feedback – I find that the comments readers leave help me to improve my blogging

Group Learning – the comments on posts often add to the knowledge base and learning that goes on as a result of the post. My ‘expertise’ on any given topic will only ever be partial at best – but between us we know a lot more

It Feels Good – OK – I’ll admit it. Looking at a post and seeing that a few people have wanted to take the time out to respond is a nice feeling.

I’m sure there are a lot more reasons that we could come up with (feel free to share yours) but another one that hit me earlier today was the impact that comments can have upon Search Engine Optimization.

Comments Present Search Engines with Fresh Content

One of the many ‘rules’ of SEO is that search engines like freshly updated and changing content. This is one of the reasons that blogs do so well in search engines (if you regularly post that is) as your blog’s front page is constantly presenting new content to the SEs.

The beauty of comments is that they too freshen up your blog and present the search engines with something new to look at.

Each time that someone comments on your blog they change the page that your post is on and the next time that Google or Yahoo send their bots to index it they will find that it has been updated – which can’t hurt that page’s ranking.

The exception to this is when comments are spam comments with links to dubious sites – which can actually hurt your standing in search engines – plenty of motivation to keep on top of comment spam.

I have noticed that comments can even attract your website in an interesting way. For example, sometimes, I write on a topic and someone added some more information in the comment section. I have noticed on two occassaions at least that the new info in the comment section brought more hits for me than the entry itself.
Of course, the obvious benefit of having a comment is personal satisfaction that someone found the entry thought provoking.

My comments helps my blog to rank well for a certain keywords that is totally out of topic. Example: My commenter’s name is “ABC”, and he commented on my entry titled “Picture of Mugs”. I’m shocked when I saw someone visit my blog by searching the keyword “ABC Mugs”. It’s kinda good although the visitor is not targeted.

I’m wondering if, in the future, search engines will start disregarding comments or consider them ‘gaming’. I’m not aware of any but there has to be a system or Bot that automatically refreshes or changes your comments.

You sometimes don’t think enough like a regular Joe. Saying get rid of the blogger bling? I dont know exactly what you mean by that. I guess your trying to say get rid of blogger blogs all together. I dont get the logic behind that. I have a site I am building on and I am building my own media blog catalog in hopes of recieving money from google. I use blogger because its a great tool for people. I dont have the expertise to simply build my own site. Blogger is a wonderful tool. I use photoshop to make my blog stand out from the others. What Im saying is that blogger is good. The regular joe that stumbles on your blog from a google search, will not know the difference and wont discriminate. I say as long as you use blogger and add your own touch their is absolutely nothing wrong. Darren I admire you deeply but some of you criticisms about blogger is not necessary. It is a wonderful tool!

Frankly who doesn’t love to see comments on his posts? I know that I still shiver of excitement every time i get that email “Someone left a comment on your post X”.
However my % of visitor/comments is still VERY low :(

Jordan – I think you misunderstand this post. I didn’t write anything about blogger – I linked to another article that did. Follow the link and you’ll see what they had to say.

Now in terms of Blogger as a tool – I’ve written previously that it’s not a tool that I use (I did once use it to run my first blog) or recommend – however it’s about personal choice and if you’re happy with it and it gives you all the features that you want – then it’s a good tool for you and you should go for it.

I’m new to the blog-o-sphere, but if you get the right people visiting your site then it seems to me that you would need comments for the feedback – like you said. That way, the readers can help to guide the direction of the site too.

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i have heard a lot about posting comments on other blogs specially those that are related to your type of blog or business.

What i’m interested to know is if there’s an actual data on showing how fast and accurate these backlinks become indexed by search engines and how long do they last as links or if they disappear as a link if the owner of the blog where you have made the comment deletes it.

[…] back if they have good post which related with your contents. Darren Rowse wrote a great content on How Comments Can Help Your Blog Rank Well in the Search Engines. He also wrote a great guideline for you to leave a comments in your friends […]

I have a same question as “Anmol Mehta | Mastery of Meditation”… any idea how to differenciate whether a comment is a spam… and how to justify a good commenter by allowing them to insert their link.. some commenter do feels justify by doing so… infact I notice some blog that doesn’t allow any links back does not have good response…

I’m wondering if, in the future, search engines will start disregarding comments or consider them ‘gaming’. I’m not aware of any but there has to be a system or Bot that automatically refreshes or changes your comments.http://moneysecrets.110mb.com

I’m wondering about comments on other websites pointing to my own, does this help with search position? Is it worth searching the internet for blogs that allow posting and writing a quality comment just to get your link on their site? Or do search engines ignore comments on blogs?Financial planning and financial advice

This had a lot of helpful tips. I have recently reactivated my blog after a hiatus of several years, and am happy to see that I am using a couple of these “techniques” already. One thing I did recently was respond to a particularly good comment as a new post, which caused people to dig back and see what the original post and comment had been about and become interested in the topic.

Funny thing is that I wasn’t thinking of that as a “techniques”, just doing it in the normal course of interacting with my readers. The other funny thing was that the comment actually caused me to rethink some of what I had said in the original post.

Thanks Darren for the great, helpful tips. You have really got me thinking about how to use my blogs correctly. I have one blog that to me is just pure love. I think I will fix on this one and see what I can do to tweak it up. http://rockandroll-forever.blogspot.com